International Business Machines Corp. Tops Q2 EPS By 1 Cent

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) released its earnings numbers for the three months through June this afternoon after the market closed on Wall Street. The information technology services company showed earnings of $4.32 per share for the three month period. Revenue for the quarter, which IBM records as its second of 2014, came to $24.4 billion. On today’s market the company’s shares traded up to finish at $192.49.

In the same three months of last year International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) managed to earn $3.91 per share on revenue totalling $24.9 billion. In the run up to the release of this afternoon’s actual numbers analysts following International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) were looking for the company to show earnings of $4.31 per share on revenue of $24.1 billion.

IBM transition moves slowly

The future has looked rocky for International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) for some time as the massive company struggles with movement to a new kind of business. The firm is attempting to move its operations into the cloud and offer a host of enterprise services that might draw in new business as the world moves increasingly into a new business paradigm.

Enterprise software, business analytics and cloud operations are at the center of a business that International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) hopes to form the heart of in the coming years, but the transition is going to be a hard one, and nobody is as aware of that as the company’s shareholders. In the weeks since the beginning of 2014 the company’s stock has gained a little over 3%, but the last twelve months have seen it trade completely flat.

The turnaround is the only thing that really matters at International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) right now, even though the company has been pointing its PR vehicle in other directions in order to keep its brand fresh looking in the eyes of customers.

IBM lures Apple to enterprise

Despite the company’s problems with getting its service mobile and on the cloud, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) has been the only company to tempt Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) into the world of enterprise. Earlier this week, engendering optimism before these results were released, the two companies announced a deal which may be a positive for IBM.

The company is developing a suite of iOS applications and selling them pre-bundled on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) devices in an attempt to offer an all-in-one solution to businesses. The promise may sound exceptional to those with a less than rounded view of the enterprise software market, but competition in the area is fierce and it’s not clear if the IBM-Apple alliance will do anything substantial for either company.

The deal with International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) was, of course, not counted among the revenue streams in this afternoon’s earnings report, but those details may start emerging soon, and it’s possible that IBM will become a proxy for certain parts of Apple success.

Until then however, investors are going to have deal with earnings report like this afternoon’s, showing incremental changes in a business transition that might take years yet.